Outdoor Retailer: Day One Notes

In more than eight hours of walking around the Salt Palace today I saw plenty of outdoor gear.

Here are a few highlights from the day.

GoPro HD Helmet HeroGoPro is introducing a 1080p HD version of the Helmet Hero wearable camera. The HD version will have a 170° wide angle lens, 4:3 resolution, 720p 60-frames-per-second video, optional wireless microphone and remote, and lots of mounts. It can also automatically shoot photos. They launched the product with three wingsuit jumps yesterday.

GoPro calls the HD Helmet Hero "a full blown professional-grade wearable camera." At OR, they showed an HD movie made two weeks ago by the U.S. ski team on Mount Hood. If only a camera could make us all look so good.

MSRP: $299.99

My First Book of Knotsby Berndt Sundsten and Jan Jager This new release from Skyhorse Publishing caught my eye twice. The third time I stopped to check it out and ended up leaving with a copy. The 45-page book explains knots for camping, fishing, ranching, farming, tying shoelaces, wrapping presents, games, lassos, and even one for tying Santa’s heavy sack. When I showed the book to my young son he said, “Thanks! Now I can learn to tie a half hitch.” He then commandeered it for the rest of the night.

MSRP: $12.95

Ortik: for alpine use I caught these alpine climbing guys from Portugal at the 2007 summer show, where they had their Heat-It hanging cook system on display. This time around I happened upon them in a corner of the main hall (an improvement, despite being next to a bathroom).

They have several expedition tents: the Jet Stream 2, 2+, and 3, and a new single-wall tent for which you can use the poles either outside for fast set-up or inside, by shortening the poles one length, for a bulletproof structure in storms. They also have a new emergency two-person shelter and the Alpine and Summit self-inflating mats.

Outdoor Research For 2010, OR has the new Highland Bivy, a waterproof/breathable 2-layer shelter with no-see-um netting at the opening, a single overhead, shock-corded pole, sleeping pad straps, and five stake loops and one guy loop. It weighs 32 ounces, is 84 inches long, and has a peak height of 20 inches. MSRP: $159